The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-08-04

on the back OF their necks. It will be-
sympathetic with all the physical dis
tresses as we'll as the spiritual distresses
of the world. Christ not only preached
but He healed paralysis, and He healed
epilepsy, and He healed the dumb and
the blind and ten lepers.
That religious discourse of the future
will be IN everyday sermon, going
right down into every mans life, and L
will teach him how to vote, how ia
bargain, how to plow, how to do any
work he is called to, how to WELD
trowel and pen and pencil and yardstick
and plane. And it will teach women
how to preside over their households,
and how to educate their children, and
how to initiate Miriam and Esther and
Vashti and Eunice, the mother of Tim
othy, and Mary, the mother of Christ;
and those women who on northern and
southern battlefields were mistaken by
the wounded for angels of mercy fresh
from the throne of God
Yes, have to tell you the religious
discourse of the future will be a re-
ported sermon. If you have any idea
that printing was invented simply to
print secular books, and stenograpy,
and photography were contrived merely
to set forth secular ideas, you are mis-
taken. The printing press is to be the
great agency of Gospel proclamation.
1t is high time that good men, instead
of denouncing the press, employ it to
scatter forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The vast majority of people in our
cities do not come to church, and moth
ing but the printed sermon can reach
them and call them to pardon and life
and peace and heaven.
SO | cannot understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren of the
ministry. When they see a newspaper
man coming in they say Alas there
is reporter" Every added re-
porter is 10000, $4,000, 100000
immortal souls added to the auditory.
The time will come when all the village,
town, and city newspapers will repro
duce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
sermons preached on the Sabbath will
reverberate all around the world, and
some by type and some by voice-al
nations will be evangelical.
The practical bearing of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian
work, not only upon theological stu
dents and young ministers, but upon all
who preach the Gospel, and all who
exhort in meetings. and that is all of
you if you are doing your duty. Do
you exhort in prayer meeting? Be
short and be spirited. Do you teach in
Bible class? Though you have to study
every night be interesting. Do you ac-
cost people on the subject of religion
in their homes or in public places?
Study adroitness and use common sense.
The most graceful and most beautiful
thing on earth is the religion of Jesus
Christ, and if awkwardly present
it, it is defamation. We must do our
work rapidly, and We must do it effect
lively. Soon our time II work will be
gone.
A dying Christian took out his watch
and gave it to friend and said: "Take
that watch, have no more use for it;
time is ended for me and eternity be-
gins" Oh, my friends, when our
moment, and our clock has struck for
us the last hour, may it be found we
did our work we'll, that we did it in the
very best way, and whether we preached
the Gospel in pulpits, or taught Sab
bath classes, or administered to the sick
as physicians, or bargained as mer-
chants, or pleaded the law as attorneys,
or were busy as artisans, or as husband
men, or as mechanics, or were like
Martha called to give meal to hum
gTy Christ, or like Hannah to make
coat for prophet, or like Deborah to
rouse the courage of some timid Barak
in the Lords conflict, we did our work
in such way that it will stand the test
of tie Judgment And in the long pro-
cession of the redeemed that march
around the throne, may it be found
there are many there brought to God
through our instrumentality and in
whose rescue we are eXultant
But o you unsaved, wait not for that
religious discourse of the future. It
may come after your obsequies. 1t may
come after the stonecutter has chiseled
our name on the slab fifty years before.
Do not wait for a great steamer of the
Cunard or White Star Line to take you
off the wreck, but hail the first craft
with however low mast and however
small hulk and however poor rudder
and however weak captain. Better a
disabled schooner that comes up in time
ILdu Aull IlSSeu DllS Uldu SOAhS9 uH
after you have sunken.
Instead of waiting for that religious
discourse of the future-it may be
forty, fifty years of--take this plain in
vitation of man who, to have given
you spiritual eyesight, would be glad
to be called the spittle by the hand Of
Christ put on the eyes of blind man,
and who would consider the highest
compliment of this service, if at the
close 500 men should start from these
doors, saying: Whether he be sin.
ner or no, I know not. This one thing
l know, whereas L was blind now
see."
Swifter than shadows over the plain,
quicker than birds in their autumnal
fight, hastier than eagles TO their prey,
HE you to sympathetic Christ The
orchestras of heaven have already
strung their Instruments to celebrate
your rescue.
And many were the voices around the throne;
Rejoice, for the Lord brings back HIS own.